Jazz in Silhouette

by Sun Ra

Jazz in Silhouette cover art
  • Type: Album
  • Released: May聽1959
  • Label: Saturn, Impulse!, Evidence, El Saturn
  • Country: United States
  • Length: 1:44:32
  • Community rating: 5/5 from 5 ratings

Album Notes & Community Reviews

'Jazz in Silhouette' represents a pivotal work from Sun Ra's influential Chicago period, capturing his Arkestra in a moment of transition between hard bop conventions and the artist's burgeoning Afrofuturist and avant-garde sensibilities. The album is noted for its intricate but swinging big-band arrangements, balancing accessible, blues-rooted compositions with exotic harmonies and exploratory moods, particularly on tracks like "Ancient Aiethopia." It is regarded as a masterpiece of the era, showcasing Sun Ra's ability to simultaneously honor jazz tradition while pushing its rhythmic and compositional boundaries toward the future.

Genres

Descriptors: spacey, orchestral, avant-garde, genre-blending, classic

Tracklist

  1. Hours After (3:42)
  2. Horoscope (3:46)
  3. Images (3:51)
  4. Blues at Midnight (11:56)
  5. Enlightment (5:03)
  6. Saturn (3:39)
  7. Velvet (3:19)
  8. Ancient Aiethopia (9:07)
  9. State Street - bonus track (4:24)
  10. Blues from Saturn - bonus track (4:30)
  11. Hours After - single version (2:47)
  12. Great Balls of Fire - bonus track (5:30)
  13. Round Midnight (3:50)
  14. You Never Told Me That You Care (5:31)
  15. Hour of Parting (4:46)
  16. Back in Your Own Back Yard (2:01)
  17. I Could Have Danced All Night (3:10)
  18. Enlightment (5:03)
  19. Hours After (3:47)
  20. Velvet (3:22)
  21. Ancient Aiethopia (9:14)
  22. Horoscope (2:14)

Credits

  • Sun Ra - piano, celeste, gong, words by [poems], liner notes [poems]
  • Hobart Dotson - trumpet
  • Pat Patrick - baritone sax, flute, percussion
  • Charles Davis - baritone sax, percussion
  • John Gilmore - tenor sax, percussion
  • William Cochran - drums
  • Marshall Allen - alto sax, flute
  • James Spaulding - alto sax, flute, percussion
  • Ronnie Boykins - bass
  • Bo Bailey - trombone
  • HP Corbissero - silk-screened cover
  • Evans - sci-fi cover
  • Robert Campbell - from sonny blount to sun ra: the chicago years
  • Christopher Trent - from sonny blount to sun ra: the chicago years
  • Robert Pruter - from sonny blount to sun ra: the chicago years
  • Alton Abraham - producer
  • Ihnfinity, Inc. - producer
  • Jerry Gordon - reissue producer
  • Judith Salavetz - art direction
  • Spencer Drate - art direction
  • Marcolina Design - artwork [disc graphics]
  • Dave Shirk - engineer [premastering]
  • Francis Davis - liner notes

More from Sun Ra: full discography